Within the state of the technique, we find progress in nanotechnology. Currently, in this area of science it is possible to develop nano systems for controlled and localized drug delivery at cellular scale. These systems are known as drug delivery nano systems (DDNS), like liposomes, dendrimers, and micelles, among others, which permit reducing significantly secondary effects in patients when the respective medical treatment is taking place.
However, even when the drug supply is highly selective and control of the drug release is precise, in the DDNS developed until now, the drug may be released in the extracellular medium. When this occurs, the medication acts not only on target sick cells or pathogenic organisms, but also on healthy cells or unwanted parts of the body because the bodily fluids can transport the drug, producing secondary effects. In other DDNS, it can be guaranteed that the drug is released only in the intracellular medium, but it cannot be guaranteed that the DDNS will be introduced satisfactorily into the cytosol (liquid part of the cell cytoplasm), reducing the drug's effectiveness. It is worth stating that existing DDNS are quite primitive in the sense that they have no motion mechanism and lack intelligence. These DDNS travel through the blood or any bodily fluid guided by the direction of the fluid or Brownian motion (random motion observed in some microscopic particles found in a fluid).
Hence, the idea is that of designing and manufacturing bionanorobots capable of traveling inside the human body and transporting medications to cure or destroy sick cells or any type of pathogenic organism. These bionanorobots could have their own motion mechanism, such as a flagellate (moving appendage with whip shape), a turbine, or even motor systems with wheels, as well as detection mechanisms (bionanosensors) based on DNA, carbon nanotube heterostructures, proteins, selective surfaces, or simple electrochemical detection; and a drug release system, such as a medication pump, or gate-controlled drug repository. Clearly, bionanorobots also need a specific system to generate energy, and process and communicate information. These bionanorobots can originate from or can be based on modified biological systems, on completely artificial systems, or a combination of these; however, although bionanorobots are quite promising, their design is a very difficult task. This is because bionanorobots are comprised of nanomachines and their design depends on the operation or function to implement artificially or on the profound knowledge of the biological model used as guide or inspiration.
Considering the aforementioned and based on the lambda λ bacteriophage (bacteriophage virus that infects the Escherichia Coli bacteria, discovered in 1950), which has a specialized system to inject DNA through the cellular membrane, this request introduces the design, along with its characteristic construction techniques, of an artificial bacteriophage properly conceived, using carbon nanostructures for drug delivery and/or sample collection.
The artificial bacteriophage was conceived through corresponding research and modeled with several design tools; among these are the Nanoengineer-1 software, the Gromacs software for molecular dynamics simulations using both Gromos force fields 53 to 6 and OPLS-AA and, lastly, the Lammps software, using the Dreiding force field. The simulations were carried out at 310 K at 1 atm pressure, in an air and water environment.
Within the state of the technique, we find multiple bacteriophages with several structural construction configurations from nanosystems and nanoparticles grouped amongst themselves; said structures have been achieved due to progress in science and, specifically, in nanotechnology.
As noted in US invention patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,013 (Jan. 26, 1999), requested by Nanoframe, LLC, [US], describing an invention patent, which consists of providing materials to produce nanometric structures for their respective use.
The WIPO invention patent, WO0077196 (Dec. 21, 2000), requested by Goldberg Edward, B [US], describes a gene and its protein sequences of gene 35 of a T4 bacteriophage.
The US invention patent, US 20140186265 (Jul. 3, 2014), requested by Colorado State University Research Foundation [US], describes a multifunctional bacteriophage to supply therapeutic agents and image formation reagents.
The WIPO invention patent, WO201430020 (Nov. 11, 2007), requested by the University of Leicester [GB], describes therapeutic bacteriophages.
The European invention patent, EP 26533536 (Oct. 23, 2013), requested by Iris, Francois [FR], describes a preparation process of bacteriophages modified by inserting random sequences in the proteins focalized in the bacteriophages.